Assembly
docs are coming together. I'm going to have to
disassemble the XY assembly and reshoot some of the
pictures, though; I have the Y stage on backwards in some of
the images. I hate taking apart a working robot.

The prototype Cupcake CNC
robot lives! Cupcake is a small, relatively cheap
hackable CNC platform. It's designed to accept a number of
toolheads-- so far we have an ABS extruder and frosting
extruder prototyped (yes, you can decorate cakes with it).
If we seem a little woozy in the video, it's because we
filmed it at two in the morning, after getting the first
successful build running.

We're selling the Cupcake as a complete kit through Makerbot Industries,
accepting preorders today. You can also get just the
electronics, individual servos, etc.

In this troubling economy, who has the resources to build a
hexapod? Thus, I'm building a pentapod-- the people's robot.

The skeleton is up on thingiverse.
I'm using one of Raph's awesome, hacked-up twitchie boards
to carry the chip. Some observations so far: I need a
shorter thigh member, and I'm going to need more powerful
servos for those joints-- hs-311s aren't cutting it.

Reminder: robot
workshop tonight, at Eyebeam, for those of you in NYC.

Mindstorms Workshop - This workshop, intended for ages 12
and up, will teach participants of all ages how to build and
program their own robots using LEGO Mindstorms (small
computers with programmable behaviors) in order to address a
specific challenge. Participants will work with an artist to
learn the Mindstorm programming language, experiment with
the design of a physical computing project, and test the
results in their own mini-robot "runway show".

Feral Robotic Dogs - The Bureau of Inverse Technology will
lead a workshop on building feral robotic dogs. These
semi-autonomous activist robots are created by disassembling
and rebuilding commercially available robotic toy dogs. The
toys are 'upgraded' by installing a new nose (data
collection sensors), a new brain that programs the dogs to
"sniff out" contaminants in the environment and by
mechanically improving them so that they can traverse
outdoor terrain.

New York-Tokyo robots tomorrow at the same venue, followed
by a robot-DJ'ed party.

Eight giant robotic spiders, programmed with artificial
instincts (and painted in Beetle colors by Scott
Volkswagen), will dart about a Charles River cove in a
spirited ballroom dance of avoidance. Pioneer cyberartist,
Remo Campopiano, designed and built the spiders with the
help of the Robotics Art Club of New England, a group of
10-13 year olds. The spiders will be dancing to an original
composition by critically-acclaimed composer/conductor,
Ernesto Klar...

Urgh. Last night's lesson: just because your old servo can
deal with a very low current on its control line doesn't
mean your new, beefier servo can. Replace that resistor
with something reasonable.

On that note, does anyone know
where I can find resistors with the values silkscreened on
the side? Being partially colorblind makes coping with
color codes (especially in poor lighting) a wearying task...